“Papi Chulo” is a buddy comedy, but only by its ramshackle design—it’s a forced friendship, and it’s not cute, let alone funny. As the needy Sean takes his new companion Ernesto through recognizable landmarks like Echo Park, Sean talks at Ernesto about his problems, treating him like the therapist he should have seen long ago. Ernesto can share how many children he has, because Sean knows some numbers in Spanish, but that’s pretty much it. Ernesto just sits there, half-smiles, and Sean rambles on. It's a bonding activity, Sean thinks, even though Ernesto knows he is getting paid for this diversion from painting the deck. Sean is even defensive in an earlier scene when someone remarks that they have “a ‘Driving Miss Daisy’ thing” going on after Ernesto rows a sleepy Sean around Echo Park. But Sean doesn’t fully grasp the situation or its optics, and frustratingly, neither does "Papi Chulo." 

Sean is a bad friend, in fact. And he’s wrong about this friendship in so many ways—the viewer knows this, but we’re not sure the script does until the very end—and it's disheartening to watch, scene by scene. "Papi Chulo" gets even more ridiculous when Sean later tries to track down Ernesto, and it's simply obnoxious that he considers Ernesto enough of a friend to constantly talk at him about his problems, but not enough to have his cell phone number, and also that Sean treats the outside of the hardware store as if it were Ernesto’s home. The more that “Papi Chulo” tries to frame the friendship as quirky and not clearly one-sided, it gets even worse. 

This is largely Bomer’s show, but it’s not a good showcase for his dramatic and comedic chops. He just shows how strained the comedy is, like with a bit built around him struggling with a seatbelt lock, or an inserted gag where a solo Sean recreates his hang outs with Ernesto, but now talking to himself. Even with the loneliness and depression at the core of the story, Sean doesn’t come off as tragically delusional so much as nauseatingly ditzy. Sean has a privilege that manifests itself in selfish actions—to use Ernesto for social time, or to use Ernesto to look like Sean is seeing someone, and it’s the worst joke “Papi Chulo” has. 

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